Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Tours & Tickets

My boyfriend and I joined a group of 40 tourists both national and international to visit and learn all about Jerusalem followed by some down time at the Dead Sea. A few tips for people like myself who haven’t travelled in this area before. Girls wear a skirt or pants or dress covering your knees and take an over shirt or scarf to cover your shoulders and chest. You don’t need to wear the scarf all the time but you cannot enter some of the sites without this attire. Men can wear a long short and shirt but if you’re Aussie we wear short shorts haha so maybe pants and a change of shorts for later. This wasn’t really something we were briefed on which wasn’t a negative but good to know. The insight our guide gave us was amazing, which he explained while exploring three of the Jerusalem quarters. Our guide was very knowledgeable explaining the rich history in a reality lovely way. Lunch was delish and the perfect amount of downtime by the sea afterwards. Highly recommended!

Norbert, our guide, was phenomenal. He was super knowledgeable and kept the group on track, despite some tour members who were easily distracted. Overall, we had an enjoyable time and learned plenty. There were areas that disappointed us about the tour: - this tour picks you up, then you go to a central bus area where you wait again. With all the transfers, traffic, and delays, we didn’t get to Jerusalem until 10:15am. It was 3 hours before the actual experience in Jerusalem began. It would have been good to know. - upon arrival in Old Jerusalem, we were taken to a store for 30 minutes. We were given a lecture by the store owner and pressured sales. We were totally uninterested in 30 minutes of our tour being taken up by a scam for extra revenue. Other than those two areas, it was a great way to spend the day (though long) and, again, Norbert deserves plenty of kudos for doing such a great job.

This tour to Jerusalem was a great experience, since we only had a few days at Tel Aviv and wouldn‘t have gone to Jerusalem otherwise. The tour includes all the main sights in Jerusalem, including Yad Vashem. While well organized, don‘t expect to have much time to explore individually or to stay at one of the religious sights for a little longer. Quite to the contrary: You will only stop for a few minutes at each location, half an hour at best, which is barely enough to grasp the historical setting surrounding you in Jerusalem. I chose not to give five stars because this tour included a few cringeworthy moments: I could live with the break at an Elvis Presley fan‘s coffee place, but the souvenir shop, at which you could buy all you allegedly need to forge your own relic (...), and the busy (yet ok) lunch restaurant were not really necessary.

Guide was not the very best, time given for HOLY CHURCH of sepulchre was too little just 40mins, considering the huge crowds and the importance of this church, the long distances we travel to come n expenditure involved, we certainly wished to see Jesus tomb, in the bargain we got late coming out, and our guide had left us behind, we missed the bus, without a phone we requested a shopkeeper and contacted the company, we were surprised with thr promptness that the company contacted us back and kept a taxi waiting for us and helped us join the bus again. However the tour ended much before time within 8hrs when we were told 11hrs, hence we feel at least 1hour should be given for thr holy church of sepulchre considering the crowds there to worship and waiting in line for Jesus tomb.

I would like to raise your attention to the condition of the bus used for transportation. Several seat belts were damaged so that you could not open the lock as the plastic button was broken. Driver opened one with a screw driver after which the tour guide asked us to keep our seat belts so that it looks they are fastened as it is required by the law. Many people were therefore forced to choose between keeping the seat belt unfastened or fastening it and facing the risk that they can not leave the vehicle in an emergency as the seat belt could not be opened without external help. I think neither of these options is acceptable. Israel tourism officials.